Hot-air attachment for manifolds.



S. E. BARNWELL.

HOT AIR ATTACHMENT FOR MANIFOLDS.

APPLICATION men AUG.28.19I5.

1 21 8,508. Patented Man. 6, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

34 1 uc vs F01 s. E. BARNWELL.

HOT AIR ATTACHMENT FOR MANIFOLDS. APPLICATTON FILED AUG.28,19I5.

1,21 8,508. Patented Mar. 6, 1917. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

LQEBWJ ZQZZ UNETEE STA vi PATENT canton.

STEPHEN E BARNWELL, 0F LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR T0 HIRO MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OF L OUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

HOT-A IR ATTACHMENT FOR MANIFOLDS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 6, 1917..

Application filed August 28, 1915. Serial No. 47,801.

It all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, STEPHEN E. BARN- WELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Louisville, in the county of J efierson and State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements'in Hot- Air Attachments for Manifolds, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to new and useful improvements in fuel economizing devices for internal combustion engines and more particularly to automobile engines, the primary object of my invention being the provision of a certain quantity of heated air to the explosive mixture being supplied to the carburetor, the air being preferably introduced into the intake manifold of the engine and so directly to the partially vaporized fuel mixture, instead of being supplied to the air inlet in the carbureter as is now often done.

With the low is almost impossible to obtain proper volatilization by supplying cold air alone to the gasolene. Obviously, if the gasolene admitted to the engine is not properly volatilized, there is imperfect burning of the fuel in the engine cylinders, resulting in decrease in power and carbon deposit in the cylinders and upon the packing rings of the pistons. on the other hand, too much hot air or air too highly heated should not be supplied as the hotter the mixture supplied to the cylinders, the lower the-compression in the cylinders will be, due to the rarefaction caused by the heated air.

Because of the above reasons, a still further object of my invention consists in providing a valve for automatically governing the supply of heated air to the intake manifold of the engine, which valve will be controlled by the heat of the exhaust manifold of the engine and, consequently, by the speed at which the engine is running and the manner in which it is consuming the fuel supplied to it.

More specifically, my invention consists in the provision of a heating casing applicable to the exhaust manifold of an engine, a pipe or other communicating means conmeeting the heating casing and leading into the intake manifold of the engine, and a thermostatic valve mounted in the heating casing and controlling the passage of air rom such casing tothe pipe.

grade gasolenes now sold, it v In this connection, a still furtherobject which I have in view is the provision of a simple and effective means for insuring a sufficient circulation of air through the heating casing to cause the air entering it to be sufliciently heated before it passes to the intake manifold. Obviously, with the many different types of exhaust manifolds now in use, some particular means must be provided for attaching the heating casing to the manifold in order that the casing may be applied to practically any of themanifolds employed andfor this reason, a still further object' of my invention consists in the provision of a novel means for attaching the heating casing to the manifold, irrespec- $11 3 of the superficial contour of the mani- With these and other objects in view, myinvention will be more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and then specifically pointed out in the claims which are attached t and form a part of this application.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a fragmentaryside elevational view of a conventional form of internal combustion engine in which both the exhaust and inlet manifolds are located at the same side of the engine, my invention being illustrated as operatively applied to such manifolds;

Fig. 2 .is a vertical sectional view taken on the-line 22- of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is' a longitudinal sectional view taken through the heating casing;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the heating casing, thermostatic valve and a bottom for the heating casing which is only em-' ployed in certain instances, the valve and bottom being shown as removed from the heating-casing;

Fig. 5 's a longitudinal sectional view taken through the baffles and showing the bottom of the casing applied.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followin description and indicated in all the views 0 the drawings by the same reference characters.

In order to insure a. clear and accurate understanding of my invention, I have illustrated it in connectionwith a conventional form of internal combustion engine having cylinders 10, an intake manifold 11 having branches 12 leading to the valve chambers end and at that side opposite the passa folds are located at opposite wall 18 and side wall casing.

of the cylinders, and an exhaust manifold 13 having branches 14 leading from .the cylinders. For the sake of simplicity, I have illustrated an engine in which both the intake and exhaust manifolds are located at the said side of the engine, but it Will be apparent that it maybe applied with equally good'results to engines in which the manisides. My invention consists primarily of a heating casing 15 applicable to the exhaust manifold 13, a thermostatic valve 16 controlling the passage of air through the heating casing and a pipe .17 leading from the heating casing to the intake manifold 11.

More specifically, my heating casing 15 preferably comprises a parallelepiped shaped body, the rear face of which is open. This body is formed with a medial, longitudinally extending partition wall 18 extending from one end wall of the body to a point Spaced somewhat from the opposite end wall and this partition wall, together with one of the adjacent side Walls of the body, is formed with a plurality of baffle walls 1.9. As best shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings, the baffle walls of the partition 18 extend toward that side wall of the body which is formed with corresponding baffle walls and the bafie wa ls of. he side of the body extend toward t e partition. In each instance, however, the bafile walls terminate short of the walls toward which they project although beyond the free ends of the oppositely projecting baffie walls in order to provide an indirect but continuous passage between the of the body. That end wall of the body, from which the partition wall 18 extends, is formed with an opening 20 admitting air to this passage and the front wall of the body adjacent the other e 1S formed with an outlet port 21. This ont wall, about the outlet port 21, which port is threaded, is preferably thickened to provide a reinforcing boss 22 and an elbow coupling 23 is threaded into the port. to project at one end slightly into the body ofthe heating The forward wall, adjacent that end having the inlet port 20, but at that side of the partition wall 18 opposite the bafies, is linteriorly thickened to form a seat 24 to which is riveted or otherwise secured the thermostatic valve 16. This thermostatic valve consists of a pair of relatively thin strips of dissimilar metals having different coefiicients of expansion, the strips being secured in close contact with each other by a series of rivets 25 or other suitable fastening devices. The thermostatic valve is secured at one end to the seat 24: and, under normal conditions, that is, when there is no heated air passing through the casing, its free end bears against the inner end of the elbow coupling 23 to prevent maaoe passage of air through such coupling from the casing. Obviously, that metal strip which engages the elbow coupling 23 is the one having the greater coefficient of expansion and, therefore, when the casing and, consequently, the valve becomes heated, it will expand more rapidly than the other and swing the free end of t e valve away from the coupling 23 to permit air to pass from the casing.

At this point it should be noted that the free edges of the'end and side walls of the casing, of the partition wall 18, and of the baffle walls 19 all lie in a-common plane, for which reason theheating casing may be positioned against an intake manifold having a flat exterior surface in such a manner that the manifold itself will form one wall of the casing. This manner of applying the heatng casing will best be appreciated by reference to Figs. 2 and 4: of the drawings. In case it becomes necessary to apply the heating casing to a manifold cylindrical in shape or elliptical in cross section, a closure 26 is provided. This closure consists of a rectangular piece of sheet metal having its edges bent laterally to provide flanges 27 to engage over the outer faces of the side and end walls of the casing when the closure is applied and is intended merely as a means for preventing entrance of air to the casing other than through the opening 20 when the casin is clamped to a non-flat surfaced mani old. k

The outer face'of the front wall of the casing is preferably provided intermediate its length with a pair of spaced transverse retaining ribs 28 and that end ofthe casing opposite the elbow coupling23 may be further strengthened by a longitudinal rib or bead 29. The above described casing is preferably cast in a single piece, although it may be otherwise formed, if desired. As a means for clamping or securing the casing to v an exhaust manifold, I provide a split ring 30, preferably formed of resilient sheet metal, with its free ends bent to provide clamping ears 31 through which may be passed a clamping bolt 32 having a nut 33. This split clamping ring 30 is equal in width to the space between the ribs 28v and its intermediate portion seats between these ribs when in place, clamping rin being sprung about the exhaust manifo d and secured by the bolt 32 and nut 33. It will, therefore, be seen that this clamping ring will not only serve to hold the heating casing in close engagement with the exhaust manifold, but will also serve to prevent any swinging movement of the casing.

The pipe 17 is connected to the outer or free end of the elbow coupling, 23 by a solderless fitting 34 and at its other end by another solder-less fitting 34 to an elbow 35 the end portions of the I which is threaded or otherwise inserted into the intake manifold 11. The threaded end of the elbow 35, which passes through the wall of the intake manifold, is preferably tapered somewhat in order to insure a tight joint and a set' nut 36 is preferably threaded upon it before its application to the intake manifold and turned down against the manifold to additionally lock the elbow in place. Furthermore, a split resilient clamping ring 37 corresponding to the clamping ring 30, is

. formed with an opening in order that it may receive the elbow coupling and is passed passage between the baflies 19, and so to the outlet port 21 and through the pipe 17 into the intake manifold of the engine. Obviously, the faster the engine is operated and, consequently, the hotter the exhaust manifold is, the more heated air will be admitted to the intake manifold. 'The hotter the air supplied and the hotter the engine, the greater the amount of air that can be used and the thermostatic valve is gaged to take care of this automatically, the end'of it resting over and entirely closing the air inlet of the heater when the heater is cold and moving away from such outlet in proportion to the temperature of the air within the heater.

Although I have illustrated and described my invention in all its details of construe tion, it will of course be understood that I do not wish to be limited to such details, as various minor changes, within the scope of the appended claims, may be made at any time without in the slightest degree departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus described the invention, What is claimed as new is:

1. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a heating casing adapted for attachment to the exhaust manifold of an engine, a pipe leading from the casing and adapted to communicate with the intake manifold of an engine, and a thermostatically operated valve in the casing controlling the passage of air from the casingto the pipe and in turn governed by the temperature of the air which it controls.

2. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a body open at one side and divided through a greater portion of its length by a longitudinal partition wall, staggered bafile members projecting from the partition wall at one side and from an adjacent wall of the casing to provide a circuitous passage, the casing being formed with an inlet port at one end of the passage and With an outlet port adjacent the other end of the passage, a thermostat mounted in the casing and normally closing the outlet port, and a pipe leading from the outlet port and adapted to communicate with the inlet manifold of an engine.

3. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a heating casing adapted for attachment to the exhaust manifold of a gas engine and having inlet and outlet ports, a valve controlling the passage of air through the outlet port, a pipe leading from the outlet port and having a threaded terminal adapted to be tapped into the inlet manifold of a gas engine, a split resilient clamping ring formed centrally with an opening to receive the threaded terminal and adapted to be clamped about the inlet manifold of an engine, and a lock nut threaded upon the terminal to engage the outer face of the inlet manifold when the pipe is in place and to in turn be engaged by the clamping ring.

4. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a body provided at its ends with inlet and outlet ports and with a tortuous passage communicating between the ports, a thermostat mounted in the casing and normally closing the outlet port, and a pipe leading from the outlet port and adapted to communicate with the inlet manifold of an engine.

5. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a body open at one side'and provided throughout a greater portion of its length with a partition wall, bafile members forming with the partition wall and with the casing a circultous passage, the body of the casing being formed with inlet and outlet ports at opposite ends of the passage, and'heat governed means controlling the passage of'air from the casing to the outlet port.

6. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a body open at one side and provided throughout a greater portion of its length with a partition wall, baflie members forming with the partition wall and with the casing a circuitous passage, the body of the casing being formed with inlet and outlet portsat opposite ends of the passage, heat governed means controlling the passage of air from the casing to the outlet port, and a closure for the open side of the body having marginal flanges to encircle the walls of the body and adaptedto engage against an exhaust manifold whereby the air in the body will be heated.

7. An attachment for internal combustion engines including a heating casing adapted for attachment to theexhaust manifold of an engine, a pipe leading from the casing and having a threaded terminal adapted to extend into the intake manifold of a gas engine, a clamping ring formed with an opening to receive the threaded terminal and adapted to be clamped about the intake manifold of the engine, and a lock nut threaded upon the terminal to engage the inlet mani- 1Q fold and be engaged by the clamping ring.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

STEPHEN E. BABNWELL. [14.5.] 

